More lecture notes from Origins 3

Friday was a peculiarity on the organizational front at the Colloquium. Two lectures which should have been delivered before lunch were postponed, presumably because other lectures over-ran. Thanks to two unscheduled papers being delivered immediately after lunch I ended up missing the three lectures that I really wanted to hear, which were eventually slotted in after the two unscheduled lectures. Very frustrating! Apparently they managed to fit in the rest of the lectures in the remaining time, but I am told that the workshop summaries had to be severely curtailed as a result. All very peculiar.

Anyway, grumbles aside, and I am truly grateful for being there at all, here are the sketchy notes from four of the lectures that I managed to attend on Friday morning.



Michal Kobusiewicz, Jacek Kabacinski, Romuald Schild and Joel D. Irish
Burial practices of the Final Neolithic pastoralists at Gebel Ramlah, Western Desert of Egypt

Official short abstract from the Origins 3 website:

During the winter seasons 2000, 2001 and 2003 the team of the Combined Prehistoric Expedition discovered and investigated three separate clusters of burials located at the western edge of the Gebel Ramlah Playa situated ca 130 km west of Abu Simbel. Each cluster represents an extended family burial ground. Each one is composed of a number of richly furnished graves, most probably belonging to the individual families. Two types of burials were discovered: single primary inhumations; and multiple, secondary burials. As a rule the bodies were committed to the earth in a plait work container, in a flexed position, head west and facing south. Great care was taken to restore burials disturbed during successive interments. Among the grave goods are pottery and stone vessels, toilet sets, colorants, palettes, abundant jewelry and stone artifacts. Imported items from long distances prove far reaching cultural contacts. From the physical anthropological point of view the populations represents a North and sub-Saharan admixture. The three described cemeteries belong to the last Final Neolithic pastoralists who inhabited the drying savanna of what is today the Western Desert during the second half of the V-th millennium B.C.

The Combined Prehistoric Expedition has been excavating a number of Neolithic cemetery sites in the southern part of the Egyptian Western Desert. All were close to fossil playa lakes near Gebel Ramlah. Radiocarbon dates place the sites in the 5th millennium BC, the so-called "megalith building phase" at the site. The three cemeteries under discussion were E-01-2, E-03-1 and E-03-2.

The three cemeteries consisted of a set of densely clustered graves. None of the cemeteries exceeds more than 10m sq. Striking similarities between them means that they could be described together.

Although some were single burials there were a number of multiple burials, one having eight individuals in one grave. In a total of 33 graves 69 individuals were buried. Most were aged forty years or more, but children were buried as well. There were twice as many females buried than males. All showed signs of having had good health, with only mild illnesses recorded. there was no evidence of violence. The bodies were all buried in the same way: on their right sides, flexed with heads to the west, facing south with hands in front of their faces. There was usually a basket-like pit lining.

Some of the burials were accompanied by grave goods. In total 896 artefacts were recovered, 568 of which were single gifts. The greater number of grave goods were made of flint and agage and included plenty of arrowheads as well as scrapers, denticulates, Helwan type points, flakes and blades without retouch, granite axes, pesltes of sandstone, polished pebbles, beads of haematite, grinders, pendants (of chalcedony, limestone, petrified wood, ostrich eggshell, carnelian and bone), nose plugs of bone, palettes, bracelets of Red Sea shells and ivory, a sheet of mica, needles of fish bone, a Cowry shell, lumps of red and yellow ochre, limonite and malachite, bone differs of bovid and gazelle, long bone of cattle, containers of cattle horn, sandstone and ivory, a bivalve shell with traces of red ochre, calciform beakers, howls, pots of idfferent sizes and shapes, cups, fragments of black-topped pottery, a gneiss stone vessel, a miniature throwing stick and a sculpture of a tilapia fish made out of mica. The number of grave goods in female greaves was twice that of male or child graves. Children were accompanied by more palettes and shells but almost no pottyer. 80% of the grave goods were arranged near the upper part of the body. Where items were arranged at the lower part of the body they were located almost exclusively near the knees.

The multiple burials often consisted of disarticulated bones with some components missing. In one case at E-01-2 all five of the bodies appear to have been deposited at one time, perhaps an indication that they were returned here from another location. Where damage occurred to the remains in multiple burials there were often attempts to apparently repair the damage. Teeth, which presumably fell out of the jaw bones were replaced, sometimes in the jaws (often in the wrong place) and sometimes gathered together and placed in they eye socket or nasal cavity. It was suggested that this may indicate that it was important to keep all parts of the body assembled.

These were probably extended family burial grounds and were almost cerntainly associated with the settlements near the fossil lake, one of which shares the same date range. One of the settlements was only 18m away.

The assemblage of black topped ripple pttery with microliths is, according to an observation by Maria Gatto, typical of Nubian sites.


Kit Nelson and Eman Khalifa
Implications for the origin and dispersal of black-topped pottery

Official short abstract from Origins 3 website:

The earliest date for the emergence of Black Topped pottery is from the Egyptian Western Desert. It is part of a pastoral life way that includes a developed ceremonial system. By Naqada II, Black Topped pottery is widely distributed throughout the Egyptian territories. This process, that includes changes in distribution and role in society, is explored using variables such as environment, associated radiocarbon dates, subsistence base and context. These data together demonstrates a dynamic system of change and adaptation that moves beyond a pastoral origin to the emergence of the Egyptian State.

The paper began with a summary of the four main stages of activity at Napta Playa before going on to an analysis of the black-topped ware.

Early Neolithic (Al Jerar)

• Microlithic, small bladelets, Ounan Harif points
• Wild plants and possibly domesticated bovids
• Intensified hunter-gathering type economy
• Rocker-stamped pottery
• Only bowls (reference Gatto 2007)

Middle Neolithic (7300-6500BC)

• Few sites
• Pits
• Hearths
• Smoothed over rocker stamped pottery
• Microliths and flakes
• Wild plants
• Domesticated bovids, sheep and goat
• Continuation of lithic and pottery traditions from the Early Neolithic
• E-75-8
• Stratified site
• Alternating layers
• Earliest black-topped pottery in Layer 8, c.6031bp
• Directly comparable with E92-9
• Pottery includes
• Beakers
• Clays which are Nile and Qussier local rather than local alluvial
• Higher firing temperatures and black-topped technique introduced
• Surface treatment includes smoothed burnished and slipped rather than plain unsmoother rocker stamped
  

Late Neolithic

• Megaliths, cattle burials, tumuli and stone circle
• Very few houses, deflated open air hearths, large roasting pits
• Change in lithic tradition
  
• First appearence of lithic side-blow technique
• Microlithic blades replaced in part by the new technique
  
• Variety of pottery
  
• First red/brown ware
• Black topped
• red burnished
• Unslipped red
• Wild plants
• Domesticated bovids and sheep/goat
  

Final Neolithic

• Still being defined
• Wells
  
• Deflated hearths
• Site E-00-1
• Agro-pastoral
  
• Pottery
• Few red/brown pottery pieces
• Ripple ware
• Black topped
• Unslipped red
• Qussier-Clastic
• Grey
  
• Shale-tempered
• Geological deposits

Analysis by faunal specialist Gautier has concluded that during the Middle Neolithic a variety of animals were represented including gazelle and wild hare but that by the Late Neolithic the dominant species were domesticated cattle and small stock.

There was a break betweeen the middle and late Neolithci periods due to an arid spell. A cultural layer without pottery appears - this maybe due to poor preservation but it may also be that no pottery was in use at that time.

Habitation, pottery traditions and lithic traditions were conspicuously different between the Middle and Late/Final Neolithic periods.

It was suggested that Nabta was part of a large system which included sites along the Nile. however those sites are only preserved in the desert. It is possible that groups were coming into Nabta over a period of time or that groups clustered along the Nile during periods of hyper aridity before returning to the desert when the climate improved. In the final stages of the Neolithic there were no habitations recorded, which suggests that groups were increasingly mobile. Perhaps groups were now Nile-based but used Nabta for managing herds.

The black topped pottery was part of a larger Nubian tradition which possibly included the Badarian.



Heiko Riemer
Subsistence, territory and contacts of of the Sheikh Muftah pastoral nomads during the 3rd millennium BC: a view from the desert


I managed to miss the first couple of slides, not having realized that the conference had resumed (an opera/theatre type five minute warning would have been great!). But Heiko Riemer always gives an excellent presentation and this was a fascinating lecture looking at the Sheikh Muftah pastoral occupation of Dakhleh Oasis in the 4th to 3rd Millennium BCE.

Official Abstract from Origins 3 website:

Archaeological evidence accumulated from more than 70 Sheikh Muftah sites in Dakhla Oasis by the Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP) has uncovered a late prehistoric community of pastoral nomads which is primary restricted to the oasis area. It was suggested that they never attempted to go out into the desert as a consequence of the diminishing rainfall during the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. Recently the excavation at El Kharafish about 25 km north of Dakhla by the ACACIA project indicates that additional hunting activities in the near desert surrounding the oasis were accomplished during the spring season. However, ACACIA surveys in the wider desert vicinity north and south of Dakhla do not indicate any substantial activity far out in the desert, although the survey data reveal some short-term ventures to a distance of about 50 km or even more. Species identification of animal dung illustrate that goats were kept in the desert regions. Clayton ring depots found far away from the oases may point to long distant contacts through the deserts.

Heiko Riemer looked at the way in which the landscape was used by the Sheikh Muftah occupants. The core area, based on the oasis itself, was described, with examples of some very rich sites given, but the larger question is how far the people of the oasis actually traveled and what sort of relationship there was between the core and secondary areas.

The main area so far discovered outside the core zone was the El Kharafish area, which is located on the top of an escarpment. Excellent preservation of botanical remains indicated that the area was occupied int he late winter or Spring when the grass was freshly green. This is confirmed by the presence of gazelle remains, the females of which were in the last stages of pregnancy. 2500 pot sherd were excavated, representing bowls, cups and jars, as well as 100 Clayton rings and disks. Of the lithics there were 365 tools, 165 cores, 7625 flakes and 60,000 chips. That these were not short term campsites is indicated by the fact that all stages of tool production were present. There were no domesticated animals represented in the bone record but a huge amount of dung pellets are thought to have been goat, sheep or Ammotragus lervia (Barbary sheep), but probably goat, given the other evidence from Dakhleh.

The evidence therefore suggests that the Sheikh Muftah groups had a home base in Dakhleh Oasis, which was the only direct source of water, but that El Kharafish was used during the Spring as part of the annual economic cycle for herding and most importantly hunting.

Herding activities are also recorded to the south of Dakhleh Oasis, upt to 70km away.

More distant relationships have been considered on the basis of the distribution of Clayton rings made out of typical Sheikh Muftah fabrics with their typical course shale temper. Links over greater distances are possible but the evidence does not appear to be conclusive.



John Darnell
The wadi of the Horus Qa-a

Official abstract from the Origins 3 website:

During more than twelve years of work in the Egyptian Western Desert, the Theban Desert Road Survey has discovered many predynastic rock art and inscription sites on the ancient routes of the southwestern desert of Egypt. At a number of these sites inscriptions are in clear association with other remains of human activity and occupation. Although many of the dating techniques for rock art are at best of uncertain value (Bednarik 2002), the sites in the Theban Western Desert that occur in conjunction with archaeological remains allow a cultural attribution. The interrelationships of rock art, habitation, ritual, and burial sites within the Rayayna desert provide an important template and test model for those attempting to understand similar assemblages of petroglyphs and archaeological material within an extensive landscape (compare essays in David and Wilson 2002). The area also provides an excellent opportunity to relate models of archaeological site formation with models of rock art site development, and the interrelationships between such sites and the landscape in which they are located.

The early sites in the Rayayna desert allow one in turn to test the reliability of models proposed for other cultures in an attempt to use formal methods to “provide a structure for the placement and nature of this imagery on the landscape” (Hartley and Vawser 2000). Hartley and Vawser describe “places with rock-art that …serve as ‘check-points during movements across the desert terrain’ as assisting in orientation to locales of water or other necessary resources,” a possibility that the work of the Theban Desert Road Survey has specifically addressed.

The Rayayna material places us in the unique position of being able to grasp at least a portion of the “emic” significance of the rock art through diachronic evidence. The later developments of some of the motifs into pharaonic iconographic elements which are explicitly explained in later textual material provides an opportunity to avoid some of the pitfalls of subjective “etic” interpretation which are otherwise inevitable when one is dealing with pre-literate societies. The use of rock art in Upper Egypt as a means of marking places and commenting upon terrestrial and cosmic processes and events appears to have led to the increasing “symbolic” nature of Upper Egyptian cultures, a necessary precursor, if not direct antecedent, to the development of true writing in Egypt.

The motifs and use of rock inscriptions in the Theban Western Desert reveal the development of a complex repertoire of religious symbols. These symbols and the more abstract concepts they could communicate allowed the individual artist/communicator to comment on the terrain, to communicate with future visitors, to participate with those who have gone before in an ongoing interpretation of the terrain (compare Huyge 2002); they also allowed for personal commentary on the more generally understood motifs. On these routes we see the development of a symbolic communication that linked people, habitation and burial sites, routes, and landscape, and that led ultimately to the development of true writing in Egypt around 3250 BCE. Hieroglyphic script originated in the glyphic symbols of Upper Egyptian rock art.

I had never seen John Darnell present before, as he failed to show for the previous conference that I attended where he was on the programme. But he gives a great performance and raised some interesting questions. He has been working on the Theban Desert Road Survey project for many years, and has discovered many new examples of rock art which seem to flank the main routes used in the Predynastic and more recent periods.

Darnell suggested that most of the rock art under discussion in his paper was post-Badarian, belonging mainly to the Naqada II and III periods. He didn't describe in any detail the basis for this dating in this particular lecture, but it appears to have been dated by reference to iconography on Naqadan pottery.

Most of the "art" (petroglyphs, some accompanied by inscriptions) is located along the desert corridors but Darnell suggests that the artists were not attracted just by the geology, the road or what was in their own heads at the time, bvut by earlier art at the site - something that he terms "spontaneous inconographic attraction". He focused on two particular form of engravings. Both are tableaux but where some were created at one time and added to over a period of time others appear to form a single unified narrative.

In the first category it is interesting to note that earlier giraffes were juxtaposed with later boats. This is also seen at Vulture Rock at El Kab where Dirk Huyge suggested that they are different motifs representing a different take on a solar theme. Darnell suggested that animals were initially used to represent the cosmic cycle, but that other images replaced them. He sees a particular set of episodes demonstrating iconographic attraction taking place at the transition between Naqada II to Naqada III. Themes were hunting, ritual, nautical (including barque and tender) and processions, all of which appear to lead towards the idea of the jubilee festivals.

Darnell highlighted the Wadi Magar vignette which he referred to as The Elephant on the Mountain, dating it to the Naqada II/III transition. He drew a parallel between this and a vase held at the Ashmolean Museum. Another set of motifs, showing a giraffe, plants, crocodiles, an elephant, types of boat, falcons and storks again have parallels with images from other sites.

The Wadi of the Horus Qa-a was named after a specific inscription, and is located to the northwest of Luxor (Thebes) in a deep wadi between the Wadi Alamat Road, which leads west out of northern Thebes, and the Arqub Baghla track from southern Naqada. There are a number of rock art sites in the wadi. In a low rock shelter on the east side of the wadi a number of images are shown which appear to have been painted at one time. Darnell compared the images to the frieze from Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis, which he referred to as a representation of a jubilee cycle (which is one of many different interpretations of that scene). It has a very similar style, may be of a similar date, and has a number of similar motifs including bulls, canids, boats and a Barbary sheep being attacked by dogs. There is also a dead animal with an arrow sticking out of it. Darnell believes that it represents from left to right the wild moving into the human domain, with the dead animal representing the domination of the human over the wild - but at the same time the left-facing bovids and the orientation of the boat pull the viewer back into the composition in a way that forces them to revist it. The boat is unusual, with a sail, a strcture and an animal on the prow. There is one human by the boat who appears to have been shot through the neck and there also appear to be standards in the composition. These elements are seen elsewhere in Predynastic art and from various different contexts in different types of medium.

Darnell believes that at the end of Naqada II certain artists were composing jubilee cycle vignettes and adding to these vignettes components which reflect royalty before any true royal names or depiction of royal names occurred. He seees these scenes as contributing to the imagery of royal power.

At another site in the wadi there was a scene which showed two mirrored images of boats with the serekh of Qa-a and Firsty Dynasty inscriptions. Inside the boats were oarsmen and, more remarkably, smaller sickle-shaped boats. Darnell thinks that they refer to the arrival of the ma-ati barque, part of the New Year's festival of Sokar.